Gray Whale Sighting

[THX723]

While diving Woods Cove this past Saturday (~ 8am), we spotted what looked like a juvenile gray whale a mere 50 ft. in front of us. Sadly, we were just in the process of making the entry from shore; not yet swimming. Had we been 5-10 minutes earlier, we'd likely run right into him/her! :shocked2:

Where the younging surfaced briefly is approximately 20 ft. deep. Very shallow. I'm guessing s/he was herding fish to feed. We later saw a couple groups of fish in the area. Also guessing the mother was not far away at the time.

Just today I heard reports of other sightings of 2 gray whales on the same morning at Shaws Cove and Divers Cove (both just north of Woods).

Wasn't as cool as it could have been, but still cool none-the-less.

 

[scanfield]

Where the younging surfaced briefly is approximately 20 ft. deep. Very shallow. I'm guessing s/he was herding fish to feed. We later saw a couple groups of fish in the area. Also guessing the mother was not far away at the time.

Gray whales primarily feed on benthic invertebrates. They really don't feed on fish much, if at all, except incidentally. Instead, they skim the bottom and take huge mouthfuls of mud and sediment which they then filter with their baleen.

That's why it's so common to see them in nearshore, shallow environments: that's where some of the most accessible muddy-bottom can be found.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Rebecca Ziegler shot this amazing encounter with a small Gray Whale at Shaw's Cove

 

[drbill]

Wow, Rebecca's video was cool. Thanks for sharing, Phil.

The only time I've "encountered" a gray whale was while diving Church Rock on the backside of Catalina. The vis was horrible when I descended. About 20 minutes into the dive I sensed something big in the water nearby and assumed it was a great white since we were close to "Seal" Rocks where they are known to hang. I got into a crevice for protection and filmed. When I surfaced and returned to the boat, the divers on board asked "Did you get any video of it?" I replied "You saw the great white?" Their response "Great white? You had a young gray whale drifting above you for about 20 minutes at the surface." Thanks to the poor vis, I never saw it.

 

[Hatul]

My buddy and I also encountered a gray whale as we were exiting from the deep edge of the reef. My video is not nearly as good as Rebecca's.